VI_Democratic_Party

VI Democratic Party

VI Democratic Party

Political party of the British Virgin Islands

Not to be confused with Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands.

The VI Democratic Party (VIDP or DP) was a political party of the British Virgin Islands.

It was originally formed by Dr Q. William Osborne during the first session of the Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands under the new constitution in 1967 subsequent to the general election on 14 April 1967. After the election Dr Osborne was the Territory's first leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council.

The VI Democratic Party only once held power in the Territory. After the 1971 general election it formed a coalition government with independent candidate Willard Wheatley, with Wheatley acting as Chief Minister. However, disagreements arose between Wheatley and Osborne, and Wheatley ended up removing Osborne from his Ministerial post. For the 1975 general election Wheatley abandoned his former coalition partners and ran successfully with the United Party, and Osborne also abandoned the party to run for the Virgin Islands Party.

The last election in which the VI Democratic Party contested was the 1979 general election, when Dr Osborne ran as a sole candidate in the 5th District, but was defeated by Cyril Romney.

Electoral results

More information Year, Leader ...

Footnotes

  1. [1]
    Although the VI Democratic Party did not officially contest the 1975 election, several longtime VIDP members contested the election and won seats: Q.W. Osborne (as an Independent), Austin Henley (as a United Party candidate) and Oliver Cills (unopposed, was not required to declare a party). After the election Austin Henley was appointed as leader of the opposition and recorded as a member of the VIDP; upon Henley's death Cills continued as leader of the opposition, also recorded as a VIDP member.


Stub icon

This British Virgin Islands–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This article about a Caribbean political party is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article VI_Democratic_Party, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.